Photographs
by sh4mesh4me
Summary: Lyoko gets erased with Yumi and Aelita conveniently stuck inside. Oh no.
1. Goodbye Lyoko

_Code: Lyoko_ and all related characters, settings, and plotlines are not mine. I feel so creative and not boring right now. You have no idea.

**Photographs**

**Chapter 1: Goodbye Lyoko**

There was a crack like lightening that echoed through all of Lyoko. A tremor passed through the crust of the facsimile of Earth, sending the four virtual beings standing in the Forest Area to the ground.

"What the—?" asked Odd (of nobody in particular) about two seconds later, as the first to recover…his voice at least, before being abruptly cut off by a scared, frantic voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Get out! Right now!" it screamed.

Ulrich's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why? What's the mat—"

But Jeremy's panicked screaming cut off further inquiries.

"You need to get out of Lyoko, right now! Something's wrong!"

Trusting in Jeremy's verdict, Yumi immediately withdrew her fan and tossed it at Odd, whose life points were already low. He disappeared to the real world the same second an upheaval in the ground not unlike an earthquake threw the remaining three characters to the dirt.

"Okay, Ulrich. Your turn." Yumi said calmly as her fan returned to her hand.

"Wait! You should go fir—" But his protests were in vain, and were abruptly silenced when Yumi's fan lodged itself in his chest, immediately transporting him to the real world.

Then the sky darkened, and the ground disappeared. Yumi opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. Ice-cold fear shot up her spine, numbing her mind. Lyoko was gone!

And then, as quickly as it had vaporized, Lyoko reappeared. Yumi's feet were planted firmly on what she was sure was 'virtually solid' ground.

The black haired girl turned to Aelita.

"What will you do, Aelita?" she asked. Her voice was steady, but the fan once again clasped firmly in her grasp was fluttering. Yumi was scared.

"I will have to stay here. Materialization is not yet possible for me. Go." Aelita closed her eyes and bowed her head, as if accepting a death sentence.

They both knew that something horrible was happening to Lyoko, and that Aelita was doomed. There was absolutely no way to save _her_, but Yumi could still escape.

"I can't go. I can't leave you here," Yumi said, almost regretting the words leaving her mouth. Why was she throwing away possibly her life for a computer program? Because Aelita really was, in truth, nothing more than pixels on a screen.

Lyoko flickered out of existence again. Not expecting it, Yumi squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth in preparation to scream, and was surprised when sound issued from her parted lips.

With her fists clenched and brought up to her face—as if to protect herself—she opened her eyes to find Lyoko had come back into existence…temporarily.

"You must go. I am nothing more than a part of this world." Aelita stated evenly, as if reading Yumi's mind.

A passing thought occurred to Yumi—what if Aelita really _could_ read minds? She was a computer program…what if she had access to the thought patterns of all virtual individuals in Lyoko? Yumi hoped not…she'd thought some things in here she wouldn't want _anyone_ to see, real or not.

"But Jeremy—he—"

"No. Really. You have to go. You have so much to live for, and if you stay here there is a good chance you may never be able to return to your world."

But at that moment Lyoko dissipated into nothingness.

And no amount of waiting would ever bring it back.


	2. Open Scanner

**Photographs**

**Chapter 2: Open Scanner**

Yumi felt as if a giant weight was pressing on her from all sides. It wasn't completely unbearable, but it was annoying and made it a little hard for her to breathe.

Okay Yumi, she told herself, just keep calm. If there's anything wrong you know Jeremy will fix it as soon as he can. You're only going to be here for a little while…and it's not that bad, it really isn't. Aside from the crushing thing, nothing really bad is happening to you…so just CALM DOWN.

Unfortunately, Yumi's inner monologue wasn't helping her panicked state much. Especially when she decided to open her eyes so she could see…only to find that her eyes were _already_ wide open.

She opened her mouth to scream, "I'm blind!" and then remembered that wherever she was…was a place in which there was no sound. She calmly assured herself that there just was probably no speed of light and no speed of sound in this purgatory-like place between Lyoko and Earth.

Jeremy was stuck here once, she dimly recalled. He'd described it as an almost-blindingly white place where he could only talk to Aelita.

But what she next remembered made her surprisingly still breath catch.

_She was going to be deleted._

It was true, and she knew it. Jeremy had almost been deleted that time…but that was different. Jeremy had been in a place with sound, light, and to some extent, movement. This place she was stuck in now had none of those things…and if it did, there was very little of them.

She was trying so hard not to panic. She tried to remind herself over and over again that her friends had never failed her before and that they'd find some way to save her.

Then she remembered Aelita.

* * *

Odd fell out of the scanner with a gasp, dropping to all fours on the scanner floor. Why had the transition from Lyoko to Earth been so difficult? It had been almost as if Lyoko was trying to actually _pull_ him into its world.

Fear gripped at his heart with the realization that he might have only just made it. He took a deep breath and stood. He looked to the other scanners. Ulrich had just fallen out of his, and was kneeling on the floor, gasping, just as he himself had been only a moment ago.

He cast his eyes over to Yumi's scanner. It was closed, and it wasn't even in the process of opening.

"Ulrich…?"

The brunette looked up from the floor to focus his eyes on Odd. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong with Yumi's scanner?" Odd asked tentatively.

"What do you—?" Ulrich cut himself off as he brought his gaze over to Yumi's scanner.

He ran over to the machine and put his hands on the door.

"Yumi! Yumi, can you hear me?! Please! Answer me!"

But nothing happened. There was no muffled voice coming from within, assuring them that Yumi was okay.

"Odd, what do we do?!"

Odd was panicking, but he guessed that Ulrich was even more upset than he was…so he had to keep his cool. He had to be the stable one.

"Ok, Ulrich…we should probably just go down to Jeremy…he probably knows what's—"

But Ulrich was already off and running. He was almost out of sight already, sprinting towards the elevator. Without a second thought, Odd ran after him. They both got into the elevator, neither saying a word. As soon as the machine stopped, they both rushed over to Jeremy, who was pounding away at his computer furiously.

"Jeremy, what's happening?!" Ulrich practically screamed at the genius-boy.

"Lyoko shut itself down! I think Xana might have done it, but why? I mean, he would have deleted himself too, unless he uploaded himself to somewhere else…somehow. But the point is, Aelita and Yumi couldn't make it out! I think Aelita is gone, but Yumi might just be stuck in the scanner with her _mind_ still in Lyoko. I'm not sure, but I have an idea…come on!"

Jeremy then jumped out of the slightly raised chair, completely abandoning his computer. He grabbed what looked like a long pole and a drill from the ground as he ran to the elevator. Odd and Ulrich followed.

They broke out of the elevator and practically ran over each other in their haste to get to Yumi's scanner. It still hadn't opened.

"Ok Odd, I want you to take this," Jeremy handed Odd the drill, "and bore a hole anywhere in the scanner. Big enough for someone's arm to fit through."

Odd nodded, and immediately set to work on the scanner. It took about five minutes for there to be a sizeable hole through which a person's leg could probably fit.

Jeremy walked in front of the hole and peered through.

"It's no good. I can't see anything."

Jeremy walked away from the hole and over to where he'd discarded the other tool.

"Ulrich, take this," he handed him the pole-thing," and try to pry open the scanner."

Ulrich took it, and stuck the pole into the hole Odd had made. He struggled for about two minutes before the scanner was partially open. A Yumi-sized person could fit their entire body into it.

They all moved in front of the scanner for a good look inside.

There was nothing.


	3. False Happiness

**Photographs**

**Chapter 3: False Happiness**

It had been at least a minute and a half since Ulrich had pried open the scanner, but no one had moved. They just kept staring at the empty space in a catatonic state of shock, unable to believe that there was really _nothing_ where Yumi should have been.

Then something clattered to the floor, shattering the silence.

Odd snapped his eyes to the floor to see a long pole lying still on the floor beside Ulrich. The brown-haired boy's mouth was slightly agape, his eyes wide. He wasn't shocked like Odd and Jeremy…the emotion plastered all over _his_ face was horror.

Odd watched as his friend's knees buckled, and his legs folded underneath him. Ulrich's knees smashed into the cold, hard floor as the boy dropped into a half-kneeling position.

And he didn't even flinch. His mortified expression never wavered, even as he brought his trembling hands up to hide his face from the world, and from the cruel twist of Fate that had reduced him to tears.

Odd watched as Ulrich's body started to shake, and a few tears trickled down his face to plop almost audibly onto the floor.

"Jeremy," Odd whispered to the blond, hoping to get his attention without alerting Ulrich.

Jeremy slowly turned his head ninety degrees to the right, facing Odd using only his neck muscles.

"We have to get him out of here," Odd whispered, pointing to Ulrich. If he was going to calm down, it needed to be far away from the scanners.

Jeremy nodded and moved over to where Odd was standing next to Ulrich.

"Come on, I'll help you up. It's going to be ok, you'll see. Now come on, get up," Odd encouraged as he slid one arm around Ulrich's waist and used the other to grab the boy's left arm and pull it around his neck. He then hoisted the taller boy up and mouthed to Jeremy to help him.

Jeremy quickly obliged, running over to Ulrich's other side, supporting him the same way Odd was.

And as they got into the elevator, Jeremy couldn't help but wonder when the next time they'd see the factory would be.

* * *

Odd laid Ulrich on his bed carefully as soon as he got to them to their room. They were alone, since Jeremy had insisted that Odd take Ulrich back by himself, as the genius needed to start running analyses on Lyoko immediately.

It hadn't been easy, either. Ulrich was heavier than Odd, making it difficult for the smaller boy to drag Ulrich all the way back to the school. Ulrich may as well have been dead for all the effort he made to help out.

Only now did Odd realize why Ulrich, who was usually helpful in even the worst situations, had been so uncooperative.

He was asleep.

No, Odd corrected himself, he had probably passed out from all the crying…or something.

But now being alone—save a sleeping boy—gave him nothing to do but think. And of course the first thing that blasted into his mind was the crisis at hand.

Yumi was gone. Really, really gone. Maybe forever.

He looked over to a picture frame on the desk. It was the four of them. They were all laughing and smiling and looking like the happiest kids in the world.

But they could never return to the past. They could never return to that past. Odd just knew it. He didn't know how, but it was like all those times on Lyoko when he saw something before it happened. It was overwhelming…the knowing that Jeremy would fail, that Ulrich would be crushed, that things would never be the way they were…

They would never be the four, happy, smiling kids they were in the picture ever again. He knew it like he knew that Jeremy wore glasses. He knew Lyoko was gone. He knew Aelita was gone.

And he just knew that Yumi was gone. Forever.

His eyes began to sting, and Odd became distantly aware that his eyes were flooding with tears. He didn't wipe them away though, and instead continued focusing on the laughing, black-clad figure in the picture.

Only…the more his eyes filled up with tears, the more blurry the figure became…until he just couldn't see Yumi anymore.


	4. Useless Confession

**Photographs**

**Chapter 4: Useless Confession**

Yumi sighed. She'd been just _floating_ in the same exact position for at least an hour…even though there was no real way for her to know how much time had passed.

Then her leg vibrated.

"Ah!" Yumi opened her mouth to gasp out the single syllable, even though she hadn't really expected any sound. She'd already tried screaming at the top of her voice just for the hell of it.

Yumi moved her hand to her thigh, and felt a vibration again. And a lump.

She could have cried, she was so happy. It was her phone! Somehow, some way, her phone was here in this limbo with her, and it was _ringing!_

Too late though, she finally had the sense to press the little button that would answer the phone. She didn't really mind though. It was probably her mother calling to ask her whether she'd be home for dinner or not. She didn't want to talk to her mother. She didn't think she could handle it. She could just imagine it…

_'Yumi dear, will you be home for dinner tonight?'_

_'No Mother, I'm sorry, I can't make it tonight…'_

_'Alright Yumi, but just make sure you eat your vegetables at that boarding school. Ok sweetie?'_

_'Yes, Mother. Mother…?'_

_'What is it, honey?'_

_'I love you, Mom.'_

_'Oh sweetie! I love you too, bye now!'_

For Yumi it would be devastating. Her mother would be a bit confused—after all, teenagers didn't sporadically tell their parents that they loved them—but she would pass it off as nothing, and just be happy…until later that night, when she began worrying something awful had happened to her daughter.

Now Yumi felt as if she would cry again, but for a completely different reason. Now she just wouldn't—no, _couldn't_ call her mother one last time to tell her that she loved her…

Yumi's feet suddenly went numb. She looked down and saw with a mixture of shock and terror that _she had no feet_.

She panicked. Anyone would if they suddenly realized a part of their body was gone. Unfortunately, though, there was no time to panic. Yumi's ankles began to feel numb, and sure enough, when she looked down, another portion of her body had just dissipated into nothingness.

Yumi tried to keep calm. She tried to tell herself she wasn't _really_ being deleted…her overactive imagination was just getting carried away…

But she knew. She knew she was dead. And then she remembered. Her phone was still clutched tightly in her hand. There was no way she could call anyone and tell them she loved them. But for one person…she had time for just one person…

Yumi had an idea.

* * *

Ulrich woke up to the sound of his phone ringing.

"Unh…" He felt so miserable, but he couldn't remember why. He hated that. And just as he remembered, and was about to just totally ignore whoever was calling him, he noticed a little piece of neon orange post-it on the phone. He picked up the small black object and ripped off the scrap of orange.

_Ulrich—went to go see Jeremy_

—_Odd_

Ulrich noted bitterly that Jeremy would be just as—if not more—upset than he was. He had lost Aelita for certain. At least there was a chance of bringing Yumi back.

"Ulrich!" Odd screamed at (what most would hope was) the top of his voice. "I have some…bad news…"

Ulrich just stared at his friend blankly. He didn't want to hear the bad news. He knew what it was. He just didn't want it said aloud. "Odd, get out."

"Wha…?"

Ulrich held up his phone—it had stopped ringing—as an excuse and said simply, "I have a call to take."

Odd simply nodded, half-understanding, and left.

Ulrich stared at the phone. While he still felt reasonably numb, he might as well check his messages. It might take his mind off things…

He went to messages, but there was nothing under voicemail…weird…

So he tried text messaging. There was one message, and when he looked at the caller, he felt a surge of hope.

He quickly opened the text message, knowing it would be a long message detailing how she was okay, and how she knew she was going to get out and be fine and laugh and smile and be his girlfriend.

But he was wrong. He looked at the simple sentence and wanted to implode. All of his hopes shattered in the one millisecond it took for him to absorb the message's meaning.

It meant she was gone. It meant that she knew.

He dropped the phone on the floor, without exiting the message. He grabbed a pillow and hugged it to himself, carelessly knocking over a picture frame in the process. But as he assumed the fetal position and crushed the pillow to his chest, sobbing harder than he ever had in his life…he just didn't care.

* * *

Odd found his friend lying on top of his covers…still fast asleep…in the morning. It was Sunday, so everyone was allowed to sleep late. He'd stayed the night in Jeremy's room. He'd been comforting the other boy, who needed a shoulder to cry on more than solitude, unlike Ulrich.

As Odd walked over to his friend, just to pull his blanket on him, he stepped on something. He silently knelt down to peer at the floor. What he saw made a few tears trickle down his face.

Ulrich's phone lying face-up, with a text message clearly displayed on it…

_I love you_

The simple message almost tore Odd's heart into shreds. Poor Ulrich…

But the other item lying on the ground was what really broke his heart.

It was the picture of all of them. The same one he'd been looking at before. Only now the frame was shattered, little shards of glass all over the floor. The picture had slipped from its place in the absence of its protective barrier, and was lying on the ground.

And again Odd focused on the same figure he had before. The one dressed all in black, such a contrast to her happy nature.

And again Odd's eyes filled up with tears, and again he didn't wipe them away, and again he found that the more his eyes filled up with tears, the harder it was to see the laughing girl—the frozen, immortal memory…

Until he just couldn't see Yumi any more.


End file.
